San Francisco Produce

One of the many great things about living at Flowershop is that there is a big market right outside the front door every weekend! Saturday is the farmer's market while Sunday is the flea market. HMMMMM strawberries chili peppers chocolate cheese melons chard plums.

Only a few notes on the bus - Aaron is off today. First, found out that the engine compartment was open to the back interior of the bus - the cover was there but was not bolted down. Bolting this down should keep exhaust from coming in the back. Second, there was a leak in the air system that seems to have been fixed when we took the driver's left hand control panel off and back on. I think it had something to do with the disconnecting and reconnecting the parking brake knob, because there is no longer a persistent hiss of air when the parking brake is disengaged. Also, as of now, there is no hiss coming from any of the wheel wells, which is itself a change, and bodes well for the state of the air system.



Finally, I spoke with Daniel, a metal / wood worker here at flower shop. He and I will start working on installing the first microscope station on Monday. We are going to start simple and flexible - there is this stuff called Superstrut that has a dealer on Potrero Hill. It is basically a strut-based Legos system made out of steel, with lots of different joints and mounts attachments. Conveniently, there are mounting holes on the roof where the luggage rack used to be (see Greg's picture showing original racks). The plan is to put in a series of vertical struts that hook into the roof where the luggage racks were and screw into the wood floor of the bus. The lab tables will then bolt onto these struts, like any basic adjustable shelving system. And, like shelving, multiple tables could be installed - for instance the microscopes could be on a lower, full shelf, while there could be a shelf half as deep above the microscope to hold equipment such as a computer monitor and power supplies.

I keep thinking about how perfect it is to be here at the Flowershop. The place is filled with talented people that are really enthusiastic and creative. I'm going to try to give a little bit back to the place tomorrow by giving a little lecture and having a discussion about my PhD work, titled How Cells Move and Why They Might Kill You - basically the same talk as I gave at my thesis defense. I'm really looking forward to it! That will be at 7pm, just before the 8pm weekly radio show (broadcast here) and Double Dutch. FUN. Back in the old days in Philly I used to be able to do double dutch - last week I could get in but only hop once or twice before tripping up. We'll see how I do this time!


One last thing - there is a hippie living here named Diamond Dave (photo to right by Dave Rhodes) who has invited me to give a public lecture at San Francisco City College, where he is a student as well as Minister of Culture (he helped lead a takeover of student government by a coalition of anarchists and other politically radical students). So another thing to look forward. This should also help me kick into high gear my search for used microscopes for the bus! So far I only have one microscope lined up.


That's all for today - heading out now to meet my sweet Aunt Dena for an early dinner!